Public Health
Here’s what A.I.-powered doctor’s visits are like
Chance are that during your doctor’s appointments these days, your physician is laser-focused on typing notes into a computer while talking with you. They do that to get the clinical information into the electronic health record.
But what if artificial intelligence took the notes for them?
Doctors and medical professionals who’ve adopted the technology are finding A.I.-powered visits can save time and help fight burnout.
“I think 40% to 60% of clinicians are, you know, identifying with feeling burnt out. And we are facing this huge shortage and physicians in the U.S. you know, by 2025, I think they estimate [a] 90,000-physician shortage in the U.S. alone. And so we need to combat that administrative burden,” said Dr. Julie O’Connor, physician solutions consultant as Microsoft’s Nuance division.
Nuance developed DAX Express, a generative A.I.-powered clinical documentation app that creates those critical doctor’s notes – instantly.
I sat down with Dr. O’Connor at Microsoft’s demonstration center, for a simulated doctor’s appointment. I talked her about my real issues with plantar fasciitis.
She ran DAX Express to record our interaction and one minute after she pressed stop on the recording, the app had typed up a full medical documentation that would go into a medical record.
This wasn’t just a transcription. It focused on the pertinent medical issues and left out the chit chat. It did miss one of her recommendations, that I should get an X-ray, but she easily added it back in.
From a patient perspective, I have to admit it was refreshing to talk to a doctor who wasn’t typing into a PC, and then to get a record that really captured what I was saying.
I found it a positive experience, especially if could help relieve my doctor and her staff from some of the drudge work.
— CNBC’s Jodi Gralnick contributed to this report.